So, people love this episode. Why? I don't know. Here's what happens. The Ent finds one of its sister ships, the Defiant, busted and dead in the water. Kirk, McCoy, Spock and Checkoff beam aboard in space suites, and find the crew all dead, apparently killed themselves by strangulation. Checkoff experiences a weird feeling. McCoy's hand passes through a dead corpse and through a table. They decide to beam back to the Ent before the Defiant disappears. Scotchy says the transporter can only beam up 3, so Kirk stays behind. Once the other 3 are on board the Ent, the Defiant with Kirk disappear. Spock's hypotheses is the space near the Defiant is between two universes, ours and the next one, and he calculates that if they wait The Defiant and Kirk will reappear. So far so good.
Now, the Tholians show up and they want the Ent out because it is their space. Spock tells them they need to wait for a couple of hours. Once the time is out the Defiant and Kirk don't show up, the Tholaians start shooting and damage the Ent. Ent shoot the Tholains with little damage. Another Tholian ship comes in and they start to build an energy field web around the Ent.
Meanwhile, since the space is between two different worlds, peoples brain cells are also disturbed, and a select few people go insane and psychotic, including Checkoff.
The Ent is stuck. McCoy blames Spock for endangering the Ent. McCoy finds a cocktail to help with the insanity. Kirk reemerges, and is beamed aboard just in time when the Ent escapes the Tholian web and everybody lives happily ever after. Except for the Defiant and its crew. And all the viewers who cannot understand how anybody could consider this a great episode.
Here's the list of problems I found: 1) Spock's decision to stay in a dangerous space endangering the Ent. 2) Spock and McCoy lying to Kirk at the end that they did not view his posthumous message. McCoy fine. But Spock lying, that is pure garbage! 3) Insanity does not affect everyone. Why not? Everyone has neurons and brain cells that may be switching to the other universe. 4) Acting was ok, but the dialogue was mediocre. 5) Music was ok, not great 6) Cinematography was ok, not great. 7) Scotcy is again depicted as a drunkard Scotchman, IN THE MIDDLE OF A CRISIS, he wants to add more alcohol to McCoy's insanity cure. Not cool. 8) As others have mentioned, the web created by the Tholains would only be effective for ships that just stayed where they were while the Tholians slowly built their web. Very impractical. Most ships would just move away every time these suckers tried to build their web. 9) Spock and McCoy dialogue is and character are out of character. Only explanation is that they are also going insane. Except the effect is psychotic. They are not acting psychotic. McCoy acts like a jerk. Spock acts not like Spock. Spock would not risk the ship to save one person, even if it's Kirk.
So, some good and decent ideas here. That's why it's not getting a 1 star. But given the out of character and the list above, there is no way this is a great episode. I'd rather watch Spock's Brain. At least that's fun.
Now, the Tholians show up and they want the Ent out because it is their space. Spock tells them they need to wait for a couple of hours. Once the time is out the Defiant and Kirk don't show up, the Tholaians start shooting and damage the Ent. Ent shoot the Tholains with little damage. Another Tholian ship comes in and they start to build an energy field web around the Ent.
Meanwhile, since the space is between two different worlds, peoples brain cells are also disturbed, and a select few people go insane and psychotic, including Checkoff.
The Ent is stuck. McCoy blames Spock for endangering the Ent. McCoy finds a cocktail to help with the insanity. Kirk reemerges, and is beamed aboard just in time when the Ent escapes the Tholian web and everybody lives happily ever after. Except for the Defiant and its crew. And all the viewers who cannot understand how anybody could consider this a great episode.
Here's the list of problems I found: 1) Spock's decision to stay in a dangerous space endangering the Ent. 2) Spock and McCoy lying to Kirk at the end that they did not view his posthumous message. McCoy fine. But Spock lying, that is pure garbage! 3) Insanity does not affect everyone. Why not? Everyone has neurons and brain cells that may be switching to the other universe. 4) Acting was ok, but the dialogue was mediocre. 5) Music was ok, not great 6) Cinematography was ok, not great. 7) Scotcy is again depicted as a drunkard Scotchman, IN THE MIDDLE OF A CRISIS, he wants to add more alcohol to McCoy's insanity cure. Not cool. 8) As others have mentioned, the web created by the Tholains would only be effective for ships that just stayed where they were while the Tholians slowly built their web. Very impractical. Most ships would just move away every time these suckers tried to build their web. 9) Spock and McCoy dialogue is and character are out of character. Only explanation is that they are also going insane. Except the effect is psychotic. They are not acting psychotic. McCoy acts like a jerk. Spock acts not like Spock. Spock would not risk the ship to save one person, even if it's Kirk.
So, some good and decent ideas here. That's why it's not getting a 1 star. But given the out of character and the list above, there is no way this is a great episode. I'd rather watch Spock's Brain. At least that's fun.